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The European Union has said it will introduce retaliatory measures against US plans to impose steel and aluminum tariffs. The WTO and IMF have voiced their concerns over US President Donald Trump's threat of a trade war.

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US steel tariffs: A new trade war?

US steel tariffs: A new trade war?

Tax on jeans

According to news agency Reuters, EU officials began drawing up a list of $3.5 billion-worth (€2.8 billion) of US goods that would be subject to a 25 percent tariff. Unnamed sources said the measures aimed to "rebalance" bilateral trade, should Trump follow through with his plan to impose a 25 percent levy on steel and 10 percent levy on aluminum.

The list includes typically American goods such as bourbon and blue jeans, to Harley Davidson motorcycles.

"We are here and they will get to know us," Juncker said. "We would like a reasonable relationship to the US, but we cannot simply put our head in the sand."

According to European steel association Eurofer, the US was the destination of about 15 percent of Europe's steel exports in 2017. US steel, by comparison, only made up 1 percent of EU steel imports.

With global stock markets tumbling in the face of a brewing trade war, European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen sought to offer a degree of reassurance, insisting "there is a little window of opportunity still open" and that Europe was posing a danger to the US.

On Friday morning, Trump doubled down on his tariff proposals, tweeting: "When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don't trade anymore-we win big. It's easy!"

"The import restrictions announced by the US President are likely to cause damage not only outside the US, but also to the US economy itself," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said.

Rice said fears of a trade war could prompt other countries "to justify broad-based import restrictions," but urged leaders to refrain from harsh measures. "We encourage the US and its trading partners to work constructively together to reduce trade barriers and to resolve trade disagreements without resort to such emergency measures," he said.